Last week I attended a planning day where I spend the whole day focused on my business. It’s something that’s really hard to block out of the diary. It’s an entire day and it always begs the question ‘do I have the time to spare to sit and think?’ Add to that a flight to Sydney and the down time involved with delays and transport to and from and it’s a good 17 hours or so.
The bigger question is ‘Can I afford not to?’
The answer to this is always no. I have committed to this for over two years now and the results speak for themselves. As do my stress levels. Taking that time for me is worth it. So worth it. I walk away inspired, focused and motivated (often brain dead and tired too) and that translates into my being and my doing. That time that I often don’t believe I have was spent on what’s most important – me!
The language of time is interesting. We have all the time there is. There will never be less time and there will never be more time. We are all equal in time regardless of gender, affluence or race. This can’t be disputed. And yet, what we constantly tell ourselves is ‘I don’t have time’.
Well simple fact is – You do. You have all the time that was given to Helen Keller, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
As Christopher Leo said ‘there is only one thing more precious than time and that’s how you choose to spend it’.
A friend was telling me the other day that she just doesn’t have the time to read or exercise. Now for some this may be true as they have other priorities or strong avoidance strategies for these actives but I know my friend has the time. But whilst she is busy telling herself she doesn’t, she won’t. She claims these things are important to her but they are clearly not. Well not important enough to change her language and make the time to do them and sacrifice some of her time wasting strategies like mindless TV.
There’s always a myriad of things you could be doing in place of something you ‘should’, ‘want’ or ‘must’ do. What you need to be conscious of is your language around time and turn the ‘I don’t have time for this’ to ‘I’ll make time’ and notice the difference it makes.
You do have the time for what’s important to you. Make it happen.